Sisco’s Mideast Efforts Futile

October 1, 1971

COPENHAGEN (Sep. 30)

Dr. Max Jakobson, the Finnish ambassador to the United Nations, and the leading candidate to succeed U Thant as Secretary General, has expressed serious doubts about the chances of success of the Middle East proposals of United States Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco. In an interview here on Danish television. Dr. Jakobson said Sisco’s ideas “do not seem to help.” On the plus side, the envoy said he was glad to note that the Arabs were not “hostile any longer” to his candidacy for Secretary General. Dr. Jakobson, who had a Jewish father, considers himself fully Jewish. His interview, conducted some time ago, was telecast here Yom Kippur eve.